Honesty, music and love
by amyvictoriaa
Summary: Georg sees something different in Maria, she isn't the same as any of the other women he has met. They start to feel something for eachother that they never expected they could. But will they be together or will the obstacles or accidents get in the way ?


_I'm one of the biggest Sound of Music fans, I watch it over and over again and I've read loads of books related to the SOM but today I decided to write my own fan fiction about it. I have written other fan fics before but this will be my first sound of music fan fic. I'm actually quite nervous and I really hope you enjoy it. I didn't want it to be OOC so I tried to capture the characters the best I could._

_Diclamer: I do not own any of the Sound of Music characters or the story my fan fic is based on._

_I would really appreciate it if you left a review after reading, I'd like to know what you thought and if you have any advice on how to make it better, that would be great too !_

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**~Prologue~**

Georg watched in shock as his children and their governess walked out of the water as fast as they could, laughing and smiling, their heavy clothing dragging behind.

"Come out of that water at once!" Georg ordered, replacing the children's happy faces with worried ones.

As all seven children stepped out of the water and on to dry land, they immediatly lined up in front of their father and a woman they could only assume was the baroness he had been visiting in Vienna.

"Oh you must be Baroness Schraeder!" Maria exclaimed as she followed the children out of the water.

Elsa, the baroness, examined Maria from head to toe and silently laughed to herself. In front of her was a woman dressed in one of the ugliest dresses she had ever seen, drenched in dirty lake water, her hair clinging to her head. But in spite of all that, she couldn't help but notice Maria's natural beauty, which she quickly chose to ignore.

Georg turned back to his children wondering what on earth they were wearing and what they had been up to. He was extremly angry with them for embarassing him in front of the baroness and making a fool of themselves.

He tried to calm his voice down the best he could before making the introductions.

"This," he said, turning to face Elsa, "is Baroness Schraeder... and these," he continued, "are my children."

Elsa politely nodded her head as a greeting, but she wasn't too thrilled to see them. She had never really liked children - she didn't dislike them - but she didn't like the idea of being in their company for the rest of her life.

The captain ordered all seven of his children to head inside to dry off and change their clothes before dinner. They obeyed as usual and ran towards the villa, leaving wet footprints behind them.

Georg turned to face Maria and feeling the tension between them, Elsa excused herself and followed the children into the house.

Georg was furious with Maria, she had gone against his orders and taken his children out, away from their studies, to... play! He couldn't remember the last time someone had disobeyed him, he was used to always getting his own way. He had known that Maria would be trouble from the moment he set his eyes on her.

He decided to confront her about it all. He walked towards her and stared her in the eye, as an attempt to intimidate her but as he got closer to her, he realised it wasn't working. She wasn't afraid of him, she didn't look at him with fear in her eyes, all he could see was determination.

He swallowed as he got closer to her. Why wasn't she frightened of him? All he could think about was how different she was to any other woman he had ever laid eyes on. She looked so fragile and yet she was strong. She looked so helpless and yet she was anything but. She was definetly something. As he stood close to her, he noticed the colour of her eyes for the first time. They were a wonderful shade of blue and they shone in the sunlight. He couldn't help but take a deep breath and then a step backwards.

What was he doing anyway? He was supposed to be shouting at her for god's sake ! Not stood gawping at her like some loved up fifteen year old.

"Fräulein," he began, finally able to speak, "Is it possible, or could I have just imagined it - have my children, by any chance, been climbling trees today?"

"Yes, Captain." Maria replied without any hesitation whatsoever.

He wasn't expecting such a straight anwser from her, she had managed to surprise him yet again.

"I see." he answered. "And what, my I ask, were they wearing?"

"Play clothes." she replied with a smile on her face.

Georg didn't answer straight away, again he wasn't expecting such a simple answer.

"I didn't think their 'uniforms' were appropriate for our outing," she added, "so I made them so play clothes from the drapes that used to hang in my bedroom."

Was he really hearing this? Had his children really been walking around Salzburg dressed in nothing but some old drapes?!

"I don't think you fully understand how I run this household, fräulein." he said, raising his voice.

"Oh I think I do." she replied, knowing exactly how the captain's mind worked. "You treat your children as if they were sailors on your ship ! You are no longer a sea captain and they do not work for you. They are your children and you don't even know them. Take Liesl for example -"

"Don't you tell me about my children, fräulein !" he replied, cutting her off.

"Someone must!" she shouted back. "One day you'll wake up and find you don't even know them anymore. They act tough to hide the pain when you ignore them-"

"Don't you dare tell me-"

"All they want is to be loved, especially the little ones! Please, love them all." she continued.

"I don't care to here more!" he shouted. He suddenly realised he wasn't angry about the fact that she had taken his children away from what they knew, but because he was beginning to believe what she was saying - she was right, he didn't know his children like he should...

"You will pack your things this minute, and return to the abbey." he decided. He couldn't stand to listen to her speak the truth any longer.

Maria looked at him, lost for words for the first time that evening. She knew she was too outspoken and that it was one of her worst faults but although she was being sent away from the children she had grown to love, she didn't regret one word. She only hoped she had made the captain realize how much his children needed him and how much he needed them.

Just as she turned around to head towards the house, the sound of seven young singing voices filled the air.

"What's that?" Georg asked, stopping in his tracks.

"Singing." she simply answered, staring towards the house with a slight smile on her face.

"I realize it's singing, but my question is who is singing?" he asked again, looking towards the house where the voices seemed to be coming from.

"The children." Maria replied, quietly, admiring the beautiful sound they were making.

"The children?" he repeated. He was shocked, surely his children couldn't be singing - could they? It sounded like angels. He walked towards the house as though he was being pulled towards his children by their singing.

As he got closer, stopped for a second, recognising the song. Suddenly he felt a lump in his throat. The song the children were singing was the very one their mother had sung to them every night before putting them to bed.

He closed his eyes as he imagined his late wife singing to his eldest daughter, Liesl when she was just a baby. That was the first time he had allowed himself to think about his wife since her passing. He felt something he hadn't felt in a very long time.

"Captain?" Maria asked in a worried but caring voice.

He gestured for her to leave him alone as he stepped into his house and walked to the living room door where he found his children, dressed in their uniforms, their hair dripping wet, singing for the baroness and Max.

He never knew his children could sing, let alone produce this angelic sound. He looked over at Liesl who was accompanying her brothers and sisters with the guitar and the most wonderful harmony. At that very moment he recognized her mother in her. She looked and sounded so much like her, how could he have never noticed that before?

He stood there, mesmorized by his children's voices as he began to remember the words to the song. He couldn't hold back any longer, he felt he just had to join in.

...To sing through the night  
Like a lark who is learning to pray  
I go to the hills  
When my heart is lonely  
I know I will hear  
What I've heard before  
My heart will be blessed  
With the sound of music  
And I'll sing...  
...once more

All the children were stunned that their father had joined in. He seemed different somehow, but they didn't know why.

Liesl looked at him and saw the man she had known before her mother had died all those years ago. She recognized her father, not the sea captain he had been for so long, but her father. The one who had once sang to her and tucked her in at night, or cuddled her when she had had a nightmare. Suddenly, she knew everything would be alright.

Just then, Georg reached out for them all and they ran into his arms as he held them in a tight embrace.

Maria stood at the doorway, admiring the sweet family scene. She smiled when she saw how happy the children looked in their father's arms.

Maybe something good had come from her argument with the captain. Her smile widened at the concept.

Georg turned his head just in time to catch Maria smiling to herself and suddenly found himself smiling in her presence.

Of course, this hadn't gone unnoticed, Elsa has seen the look Georg had given the young governess. She felt extreme jealousy towards Maria at that very moment. She was just a young clueless governess that had been sent from the abbey to look after Georg's children, so why did he look at her the way he did?

After witnessing such a happy scene, Maria felt her work there was done and she headed towards the staircase to pack her things, and head back to the abbey.

Georg, who had been watching her, left his children for a minute and ran out of the room after her.

"Maria." he shouted after her.

"Yes?" she asked, turning on the stairs to look down at the captain.

"You have brought music back to this house, and you have reunited me with my children..." he began. "I was wrong, earlier, when I asked you to leave. I - I want to stay - I ask you to stay."

"I'm not sure I could-"

"Please." he persued.

Maria looked down at him. She couldn't quite understand him; only minutes ago he had been shouting at her to leave, and now he was practically begging her to stay. She didn't know what to say. She had hidden her feelings earlier on when the captain had confronted her but the truth was, he intimidated her. Somehow she felt different in his presence, she felt something that she hadn't felt before. But then she thought of the children, she couldn't bare to leave them, not now that she had got to know them all so well. No, she couldn't leave just yet. She had promised the Reverend Mother she would help this family and she would do just that.

"Ok." she nodded shly. "I'll stay."

"You will?" Georg asked, surprised at her answer.

She only nodded in response, before smiling down at him in gratitude.

He returned the smile and watched her disapear up the stairs before heading back into the living room to be with his children.

Yet again, Elsa had noticed the way he had acted towards Fräulein Maria. She felt her face burning with anger and jealousy. He can't carry on like this, she thought to herself. I won't let him.

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_So that's the end of the prologue but I promise to post chapter 1 very soon! Please leave a review, it will encourage me to write more. I really hope you enjoyed the start and thank you so much for reading !_


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